The present invention relates to motorized toy vehicles and, more particularly, to remotely and automatically controlled toy vehicles.
Remote controlled (R/C) toys are generally well known in the art. Such R/C toys generally include a remote control having one or more manual actuators for controlling the movement and sometimes the mode of operation of the R/C toy vehicle. Generally, the R/C toy vehicle is turned on by a user and then the user utilizes the remote control to control movement of the R/C toy vehicle forward, reverse, left, right and combinations thereof
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,483, at least one more complicated R/C toy vehicle play set includes not only multiple remote controls for controlling multiple R/C toy vehicles at the same time, but also a secondary transmitter and secondary receiver in each R/C toy vehicle such that different R/C toy vehicles can cause actions between one another. For example, in the one prior art R/C toy vehicle play set, a user controls a particular R/C toy vehicle to steer and drive and additionally causes the R/C toy vehicle to xe2x80x9cfirexe2x80x9d or emit a secondary transmit signal. Another user similarly, simultaneously and independently controls another R/C toy vehicle. If the other user""s R/C toy vehicle is generally in the path of the secondary transmit signal and receives the secondary transmit signal, the other user""s toy vehicle is either temporarily disabled electronically or loses a point or the like.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,968, other self-powered toy vehicles have secondary sensors for tracking nearby heat sources (i.e., broadband infrared receivers), such as a human body. The sensors of the toy are mounted in a rotating head that is mounted, in turn, upon a wheel, track or light body that can move. The toy also includes sensors to detect unheated objects in its path and will act to avoid hitting them. The toy can either chase or move away from the heat source according to a particular mode of operation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,803, another similar self-powered toy vehicle is adapted to follow a path defined by light and dark areas. This toy vehicle has no remote control but rather traverses a path of light and dark areas that may be defined on any surface. The toy vehicle contains two photosensitive devices that change the resistance in accordance with the amount of light received. The photoconductors disposed on opposite sides of the vehicle guide the vehicle along the light areas of the pattern on the floor. A modified version of the toy vehicle includes a sensor to detect objects in its path. The mobile toy vehicle has an on-board forwardly facing transmitter for forwardly transmitting a transmission signal, e.g., an infrared light beam, ahead of the toy. The toy vehicle also has an on-board forwardly facing receiver, e.g., an infrared light detector, mounted on the toy for detecting and collecting a portion of the transmitted infrared light beam reflected off an obstacle located within a predetermined range. The toy vehicle has two modes of play. The first mode causes the toy to veer away from obstacles when detected, and the second mode causes the toy to attack an obstacle once detected. The second mode simply causes the toy to advance towards the obstacle rather than to veer away from it and if the obstacle moves away from the toy, the toy will pursue the obstacle in this mode.
What is valuable is toy vehicles having still different and novel play patterns from those already disclosed.
Briefly stated, the present invention comprises a toy vehicle combination. The combination includes a master toy vehicle and a slave toy vehicle. Each toy vehicle includes a chassis with a plurality of supporting road wheels, a motive system drivingly coupled to at least one of the plurality of road wheels so as to propel the chassis and a steering system operably coupled to at least one of the plurality of road wheels so as to steer the chassis. The master toy vehicle includes a transmitter configured to broadcast a tracking signal, a radio frequency (RF) receiver configured to receive signals from an RF remote control, a master toy vehicle control circuit having a first output connected to the motive system of the master toy vehicle and a second output connected to the steering mechanism of the master toy vehicle. The master toy vehicle control circuit is configured to control the first and second outputs of the first control circuit based upon signals received by the RF receiver. The slave toy vehicle includes at least first and second directional receivers configured to receive the tracking signal from the transmitter from different directions around the slave toy vehicle, a slave toy vehicle control circuit coupled to the first and second directional receivers, a first output connected to the motive system of the slave toy vehicle, and a second output connected to the steering system of the slave toy vehicle. The slave toy vehicle control circuit is configured to control at least one of the first and second outputs of the slave toy vehicle control circuit based upon signals received by the first and second directional receivers.